The saga continues. Since learning about the gay pride event that was held at Peet Junior High earlier this school year, The Iowa Standard has worked to find out exactly what happened and how it happened.
Kendra Wohlert, the wife of Sen. Eric Giddens, put out a statement saying that three days into the school year a seventh-grade student was “bullied” in the locker room.
“His head was hit with a locker and he was called a ‘fuc*ing fa**got,’” she wrote.
On Oct. 5, The Iowa Standard sent an email to Janelle Darst (communications director) and Joyce Coil (board president). We asked if Peet staff was aware of the situation. We also asked if anyone contacted the school regarding the incident and if anyone from the school filed a police report or contacted law enforcement regarding the incident.
A parent of a Peet student said Mr. Bill Boevers, Peet principal, said he was unaware of any bullying incident.
After a month of waiting, The Iowa Standard followed up with Darst.
“It was reported to the building and the incident was handled per district policies,” she said. “Due to student privacy, we will not make additional comments regarding discipline or specific actions.”
The Iowa Standard then contacted the Cedar Falls Police Department to find out if a police report was filed. The CFPD directed The Iowa Standard to call Peet Junior High to speak with the school resource officer.
We did that on Nov. 14. We were told the officer was unavailable, but we could leave a message.
Last week we called CFPD back and informed them we had not heard back from Officer Clint Ferguson. They gave us his direct contact information. We left a message for him explaining that we had called the school and left a message for him a couple weeks earlier.
We asked if he was aware of the alleged bullying incident and if there was a police report filed.
Officer Ferguson got back to The Iowa Standard earlier this week.
“No police report was filed on said incident,” Officer Ferguson said.
In fact, Officer Ferguson said he wasn’t aware of the incident until receiving a voicemail from The Iowa Standard in late November.
“I have no knowledge of what you are referring to and was never informed that you left a message for me at Peet Junior High,” he said.
When asked if an alleged assault took place at the school, something like a kid having his head hit with a locker would typically be reported by the school to Officer Ferguson, he said, absolutely.
“Yep. And they have before,” he said.
